Page 52 - BiTS_09_SEPTEMBER_2021

his guitar sounds great throughout and while not particularly rated as a singer I also thought that

his vocals were fine here.

Graham Harrison

Ida Mae—Click Click Domino—Vow Road ASIN : B08XLLF54J

Ida Mae are a British duo of Christopher Turpin and Stephanie
Jean Turpin who are now based in Nashville and this is their
second album based on a couple of years spent touring America
and mixing with the likes of Willie Nelson and Marcus King. Ida
Mae was born out of a previous band Kill It Kid and their first
album featured more blues-based sounds and while those sounds

are still here to some extent this album has a much more
'produced' sound mixing Christopher's rootsy resonator guitar,
banjo and mandolins with Stephanie Jean’s mellotron, synths and
piano. 'Road to Avalon' starts off restrained with just a banjo but
soon builds up to a climax with crashing drums (courtesy of Ethan Johns), while the title track is
powerful from the start with Marcus King adding his guitar and 'Raining on You' features
Christopher's resonator under the couple's haunting melodic vocals for one of record's most bluesy
tracks. 'Little Lies' features Stephanie Jean’s vocals up front and on 'Deep River' Marcus King is
back to add his guitar on another powerful blues rock track.

The band's sound is really based around their vocal harmonies which have a haunting, old timey
vibe - check out 'Calico Coming Down' and 'Learn to Love You Better' - underpinned by the
atmospheric backing. Jake Kiszka (from Greta Van Fleet’s band) adds his lead guitar to 'Long Gone
And Heartworn' another blues rocker, while 'Mountain Lion Blues' is a real swampy slow blues with
Christopher's howling vocals and slide guitar, contrasting nicely with the melodic gospel of 'Sing a
Hallelujah' with Stephanie Jean on lead vocals. This is a very original record with some very

atmospheric sounds and playing and I will look forward to seeing how they recreate them live when
I see them at this year's Red Rooster Festival in Suffolk.

Graham Harrison

Oscar La Dell, Chris Armour—Right Kinda Wrong—Ocsar La
Dell

Oscar Ladell was born in the States, the son of a blues musician
who moved to New Zealand when Oscar was young, he has solo
albums to his name but here he combines with NZ guitarist Chris
Armour. They are joined by Steve Moodie (bass), Richard Te One

(drums) and Michael Crawford and Dayle Jellyman (keyboards),
with Oscar handling vocals and harmonica and sharing guitar
duties with Chris. 'Stop Telling Lies' is a lovely relaxed, loping
blues shuffle with nice guitar, piano rolling along in the
background (it reminded me of Boston's GA-20) and 'Slow
Burning Love' is real West Side blues with a Magic Sam vibe. On 'I.C.U.' Oscar plays harp and does
it very well, with a real low down Chicago sound, more harp on 'Some Days' and on 'Fine Lovely
Lover' Oscar takes the lead guitar duties, as he also does on the instrumental 'Blues For The
Hopeless', with Chris on slide.